While depression is a mental illness in itself, suicide is not. However, suicide is a serious potential consequence of those mental disorders. The many warning signs and triggers for suicide include major depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and substance abuse.
The most common cause of suicide is that someone feels like that no one can help them...or save them.
Believe it or not, someone's savior is out there every day willing to help them. People don't enjoy asking for help because they are reluctant and resistant at first. That's the first step to recovery: realizing that you're not well and that you need to talk to someone. It's next to impossible to advance in today's society if you neglect the fact that something in your head is telling you to talk to someone and see them on a regular basis.
Here's the one thing that people are afraid of when they want to ask for help: how do they do it effectively? How do you impose upon people without making them feel imposed on? As mentioned, your first step is to get over your reluctance to get assistance, but there's more to it than that.
In order to get over this mindset, you need to understand that some of the most common ways of asking for help are really unproductive. This is because they make people less likely to want to give it. The easiest way of overcoming the personal demon is realizing most people are more than willing to lend a hand and relate to what is wrong with the person.
A big example is myself. When I first moved to my community, I was about 7 or 8 years old. I went to a different school district, met new students, new kids, new teachers, and it was really intimidating for me. I struggled to fit in, often bullied, and did everything I could to isolate myself from everyone. Those actions for me carried all throughout elementary school, to the final weeks of my senior year in high school.
That's right. For over a decade, I had been a loner, not wanting anything to do with anyone or anything, and refused to get help because I was depressed with the thought that no one would want to help me. During twelfth grade, I began to admit that I was depressed but never really came to terms with it. I often denied it even though it was pretty obvious I was. It wasn't until years later that I came to terms with my depression and started seeing my therapist on a regular basis.
The key to a successful request for help is to turn your focus to the benefits of realizing your problems to the person you want to have helped you. You want to persuade them to be helping because they want to, not because they must, and that they're in control of the decision.
This is why suicide seems like the best option for people struggling to find help. They are in a mindset that because they are unwilling to help themselves, no one will ever help them and that they are better off dead. Saying things like, "Nobody can save me," or "What's the point of going on?" are scary signs that mean bad things.
Never believe that suicide and running away from your problems are the best answers and solutions.
Whoever made the phrase "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem" was a very wise person. Someone out there does care about what you are going through and how much you struggle. It is up to you to break out of your shell, conquer the demons that hold you back, and get the help that is necessary for you to live the life you want to live.
